It’s the nightmare NBC’s Awake fans were dreading. NBC has cancelled the show after 13 episodes and one season.
Created by Kyle Killen (Lone Star), Awake revolves around a police detective (Jason Isaacs) who, after being in a horrific car accident, finds that he’s living in two realities. In one, his son perished — in the other, his wife did. The cast also includes Laura Allen, Steve Harris, Dylan Minnette, B. D. Wong, Michaela McManus, Wilmer Valderrama, and Cherry Jones.
The complex drama had an unimpressive debut back on March 1st, registering a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 6.24 million viewers. NBC had released the pilot episode well in advance so some believed that hurt the premiere ratings.
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Theoretically the second episode should have shown signs of growth but it didn’t. Week two dropped 20%. Week three remained stable but subsequent weeks saw additional declines. Last week’s episode hit a new low with a dismal 0.7 rating and just 2.15 million viewers.
This season has averaged a 1.1 rating in the demographic with 3.5 million total viewers. Awake is the third-lowest rated drama on the network, beating only Harry’s Law and The Firm (both of which have been cancelled as well). On our NBC Ratings Report Card, which measures the relative demo performance of shows on the network, Awake has a “D+” grade.
NBC has now cancelled Awake and the series finale is on track to air Thursday, May 24th. While it wasn’t intended as a series finale, Killen has said that he believes the finale is very satisfying.
What do you think? Are you sorry to hear that Awake has been cancelled and won’t be back for a second season? Was the series too complicated for most TV viewers or did it have other problems?
Image courtesy NBC.
I want to first make the statement that this show was the best show that I have seen in years since “Murder She Wrote”. I am so tired of reallity TV!!! The acting was perfect…I am so disapointed in NBC..Who are you polling. My entire office loved it. It gave us something to talk about. The suspence..it forced me to think and right when I thought I had it, Bam, wrong…What will happen next, was my emotions.Please Please, pretty Please, put it back on. I need to know what happens to “Bird” and when the baby is born. Give us… Read more »
A brilliant series with an outstanding cast and NBC succumbs to a public that has dumbed down!!! The majority of Americans are incapable of being entertained if they are required to think… People want to be hit over the head with the obvious dribble… I am so disappointed!!!!!!!
Im just devastated . Why wouldn’t people watch this? By far my favorite show. Don’t go 🙁
They cancel the best show on television. If not enough people watched then it should have been promoted more or had the time changed. There wasn’t a more intelligent show on the tube.
i can’t believe that i’m never going to see the real ending. I just watched the “finale” not realizing that this was the finale and realized that it had aired weeks before. what happened? i went online fearing that it had been canceled and found that this was the case. i’m still hoping that this is a joke and that if it isn’t, that there’s still a chance that NBC will bring it back. i’m practically in tears. if anyone knows if there is a website where i can find the episodes that weren’t aired please let me know.
Intelligent tv shows don’t last very long because too many people are stupid. Our attention spans are so short we can’t follow anything as complex as Awake was. This was one of the better shows on tv. Maybe NBC will actually listen to the comments about the cancellation of Awake but I doubt it.
This was such An amazing show. Although I did not watch at the time of showing due to being at work. I made sure to Dvr it! Great actors and outstanding story line. Season 2 is a must! This show it alot better than others that NBC is keeping.
God I finally saw the finale today and didn’t even know the show got cancelled, I have been online for the last half an hour trying to figure out what happened, damn NBC give the show a chance which is the only show watch on this network.
Loved it! NBC STINKS
This is a great show that should NOT be cancelled!!
This show was great. You never quite knew what was going to happen. Great acting, great writing. I cannot understand why some of the stupidest shows have stayed on and the better ones are cancelled. I am turning more and more to Canadian and Great Britain shows. Cannot understand where these ratings are coming from. Maybe NBC needs to look at their venue for gathering ratings as 96% of the voters are in favor of this show. Stop catering to people 15 to 20 years old and give us something with some meat on the bones. Disgusted with this decision.
No reason to even turn the channel to NBC now. Used to be a show would be on several seasons in order to catch on – now they don’t even give them a chance. I hate to even get interested in a new show these days because they’re so quick to cancel them. Speaking as someone who cannot stand reality shows, there’s not a lot of tv left to watch. I hate the shows that are obviously staged (reality). I’ll take a great show like Awake anyday with good writing and unpredictability. Maybe another station will be smart enough to… Read more »
I can not agree with you more. There are so many talent-less shows out there and this show put them all to shame! I watch a handful of shows and three of them got cancelled! I do not want to start a new show and get invested for the fear of them cancelling it!
Oh my goodness…this is only the BEST series to come out in years!!! My kids and I are heartbroken that it is being cancelled! If anyone can find a way to save this one with a writing campaign or something, we should do it. It is so hard to find a TV series worth devoting an hour a week to. The acting and scripts were fabulous and Jason Isaacs so deserves an Emmy!!!
May have been on too late.
I really want it back and want to know what season two would have been about. Can’t imagine.